The Maltese Hilltop Town of Mdina

On Monday, we made reservations to do a day long boat tour to the island of Comino and the Blue Lagoon. The trip however was cancelled due to winds. If our time allows, we'll rebook for later this week, though we know now that the water is far too cold for swimming so that may deter us. 

So we had a free day ahead of us and decided to visit the inland hill top fortress city of Mdina. This was the capitol of Valletta until the medieval times when the city of Valletta was built. The incentive for Jude was the "bones" at the Natural History Museum within the city walls. We didn't even need that though, as there was another fun playground right at the city gate. Pete, Maeve and I enjoyed the museum far more than Jude. We could have spent a long time in the bird room studying all of the beautiful species. Maeve's current obsession is with all of the pigeons that hang around waiting for her to drop food at the outdoor restaurants here! 

Natural History Museum

The "bones"

The Maltese Cross inlaid outside the museum. 

Note the British phone booth

We stopped for an early lunch at a cafe with a grand view and a certain 3-year old who was grandly misbehaving until his food arrived. He proceeded to eat nearly all of my lasagne while Maeve ate nearly all of his meat pie! I know I don't deserve these kids who eat so well (I am one picky eater!). 

Malta countryside

With Jude passed out in the stroller and Maeve shortly behind him in the carrier, Pete and I wandered the narrow streets in peace.

Maltese is the official language on the island and is said to be a mix of Arabic and Italian. Due to the long British rule, English is also widely spoken. Cars also drive on the left and the electric socks and three-pinned as in the UK.

We stopped in a Maltese glass shop to pick up some collectible Christmas tree ornaments. The shop worker was a middle aged American woman who was happy to chat us up and especially talk politics, expressing her fears over an impending war at the hands of ours truly. The sentiment continued when Pete and I stopped for a glass of Maltese wine and met a Romanian woman who lives in Norway. She too, expressed her fears to us about the world wide consequences of the actions of the current POTUS. We had a lot of deep conversations with her as we ended up sharing a taxi together to a nearby beach as she was traveling on her own. Being from Eastern Europe, she shared that she is considered an immigrant in Norway and is looked down upon for her background. She stated that if she had only been from a country a little further North, that she would be considered an expat and not an immigrant. I've thought of this distinction a lot, being "expats" ourselves. I've often wondered why we aren't referred to as immigrants and why people who come to the US aren't all just "expats." We are teeming with privilege and it often makes me sick.

Thankfully this conversation was over wine so we didn't wallow in despair. We'd been ordering local Maltese house wine with our meals and hadn't been too impressed. So we upped our game at this cafe and ordered some high end 4.75 euro/glass local wine, which really was much better.

Our new friend took some family pics for us by the town gate as we waited for the taxi. Jude had just woken up and was not in the mood for pics (he rarely is). Luckily, a horse drawn carriage was passing by, which he wanted to check out.

We ended the day at Golden Bay beach, one of the few sandy beaches on the island. It was indeed very windy that day so it was cool down by the beach. We solved Jude's problem of not having beach toys by befriending some nearby kids who had plenty. I love how friendly Jude is and so open to playing with new kids.

From the beach, there was a local bus headed back to our part of the island. Everyone wanted on that bus and we were lucky to get on and gets seats with our friend. We don't know how we would have made it off that bus if she hadn't been there to help! She paid us a huge compliment and said that we restored her faith in the ability to have kids and still enjoy life and travel. It can be done. It is tiring, but it can be done!